CBI raids senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Anand Grover’s premises, accuses them violating laws on foreign funds 

Arunima Bajaj  Thursday 11th of July 2019 01:18 PM
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Indira Jaising (L) and Anand Grover.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Thursday, raided the house of senior lawyers Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover’s NGO. The agency accuses them of violating a law on foreign funding.

Indira Jaising and Anand Grover are among the most prominent faces of public interest and civil rights litigations in India. They have been involved in pathbreaking cases linked to gender justice, gay rights, labour and healthcare.

The agency had earlier filed a case against Anand Grover and his NGO “Lawyers Collective” for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act or the FCRA. The raids started at around five in the morning at the home of Indira Jaising in Delhi’s Nizamuddin and the offices of Anand Grover’s Lawyers Collective in Delhi and Mumbai.

Although CBI’s first information report, filed on the basis of a home ministry complaint, does not name Indira Jaising as an accused, but the ministry reportedly referred to her alleged role.

According to the investigation, Jaising received ₹96.60 lakh from Lawyers Collective without government permission while Anand Grover and his NGO have been accused of misusing foreign contributions and spending the funds for trips abroad.

Meanwhile, over 20 lawmakers, in a letter to Narendra Modi, said, “We, the undersigned individuals strongly condemn the raids... This, latest in a long line of coercion and intimidation of Ms Jaising and Mr Grover, is nothing short of a brute show of intimidation as well as gross abuse of power.”

The Bar Association of India too has condemned the raids. It issued a statement in which it called the raids as “excessive, disproportionate and unjustified”. It said the raids amount to “an assault on the independence of lawyers engaged in constitutionally protected activities of advancing human rights and upholding the rule of law”.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a tweet, also condemned the raids on the two eminent lawyers. 


 

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